BMW is still working out details of green-energy EV plant in Hungary

BERLIN – BMW is still working out how to make good on a promise to build the world's first fossil-fuel free plant in Hungary, from how much energy can be generated on-site to how much storage will be needed, the automaker's production chief, Milan Nedeljkovic, said.

BMW will build its next-generation full-electic cars underpinned by its Neue Klasse (New Class) architecture at the factory in Debrecen, about 200 km (124 miles) east of Budapest, starting in 2025. The automaker has said the plant will source all its electricity from renewables,

The factory will still be connected to Hungary's grid, Nedeljkovic said at a media roundtable on Wednesday.

About half of Hungary's electricity generation comes from nuclear energy, according to data from the International Energy Agency, with about a quarter from natural gas.

BMW will attempt to source a "significant" proportion of the energy required for the Hungary plant on-site, such as through solar panels, Nedeljkovic said, declining to comment on whether he expected the exact figure to be over 50 percent.

Like other automakers, BMW has committed to purchasing 100 percent green energy, but much of this is bought in the form of so-called energy certificates, which signal demand for renewables on the open market but do not mean renewable energy is flowing into its plants.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and spiking gas prices have pushed automakers to look more closely at direct renewable sources, in an attempt to lower dependence on Russia and reduce exposure to a sudden halt in gas supplies.

BMW was exploring various ideas for on-site storage of renewable energy, Nedeljkovic said, with one option being high-voltage batteries recycled from BMW cars.

It was not yet known what capacity the battery storage system in the Debrecen plant -- where the automaker plans to produce around 150,000 units a year, compared to the 350,000 it produces in Leipzig -- would have.

"We are setting up a plan to define capacity requirements," Nedeljkovic said.